Tika Primandari, Jakarta – The National Commission for Child Protection has released a data concerning children for the first semester of 2013. The commission secretary general Samsul Ridwan said the number of child laborer has reached 4.7 million children.

"Mostly in Papua. Child laborers covered 34.7 percent of the total laborers (there)," said Samsul on yesterday, July 18. The second position was taken by North Sulawesi with 20.46 percent of child laborers, and followed by West Sulawesi at 19.82 percent of child laborers.

Based on location and the total number, about 1.1 million children work in the city area while the remaining 2.3 million work in villages.

For comparison, the data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded 1.7 million child laborers consisting of 674,000 children are aged below 13. As many as 321,000 aged between 13 and 14, and 760,000 aged between 15 and 17. Indonesia has set a target to be free of child laborers by 2020.